# croon
## English
### Etymology

The verb is borrowed from Scots croon (“to utter a deep, long-drawn-out sound; to utter a lament, mourn; to sing in a wailing voice, whimper, whine; to mutter or sing in an undertone, hum”) [and other forms], from Middle English cronen (“to sing or speak softly, hum, croon”) (croyn (Scotland)) [and other forms], probably from Middle Dutch crônen, krônen (“to groan, moan; to lament”) (modern Dutch kreunen (“to moan”)), or Old High German chrônan, krônen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), probably from Proto-Germanic *kraunijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”).
The noun is partly:
* borrowed from Scots croon (“a lament, wail; mournful song; low murmuring tune; (obsolete) long-drawn-out sound”), from croon (verb): see above; and
* derived from the verb.
* Middle Dutch krônen (modern Dutch kreunen (“to groan, moan; to lament”))
* Middle Low German kroenen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), kronen (“to growl; to grumble; to scold”)
* Old High German chrônan, chrônnan (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”)
* Saterland Frisian krȫnen (“to cause to weep”)

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kɹuːn/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /kɹun/
* (Scotland) IPA: /krøn/, /krʏn/
* Rhymes: -uːn

### Verb

croon (third-person singular simple present croons, present participle crooning, simple past and past participle crooned)
* (transitive)
** To hum or sing (a song or tune), or to speak (words), softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice.
    Coordinate terms: see Thesaurus:sing
    He was crooning a song.
*** 1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 200:Tam ſkelpit on thro' dub and mire, / Deſpiſing vvind, and rain, and fire; / VVhiles holding faſt his gude blue bonnet; / VVhiles crooning o'er ſome auld Scots ſonnet; […]
*** 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Paul's Further Progress, Growth, and Character”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 69:So they went, toiling up [the staircase]; she singing all the way, and Paul sometimes crooning out a feeble accompaniment.
*** 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 249:[A]ny other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise.
*** 1856, Thomas L[ake] Harris, “Part Three”, in A Lyric of the Golden Age, New York, N.Y.: Partridge and Brittan, […], →OCLC, page 223:Thou croonest thy wild death-song o'er the world; / Serene Futurity thou dost conceal; / Thy banner is the shroud, the pall unfurled / Above mankind; […]
*** 1909, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Ed[ward] Madden (lyrics), Gus Edwards (music), New York, N.Y.: Gus Edwards Music Pub Co, →OCLC, pages 4–5:By the light of the silvery moon, / I want to spoon, / To my honey I'll croon love's tune, […]
** To soothe (a person or an animal) by singing softly.
*** 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 73.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 364:[I]n his ill-remembered prayer, and in the fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep, there breathed as true a spirit as ever studied homily expressed, or old cathedral arches echoed.
* (intransitive)
** To hum or sing, or to speak, softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing a popular song in a low, mellow voice.
    (to speak): Synonym: coo
    She was crooning, but I couldn’t make out what the song was.
*** 1856, Hugh M‘Donald, “No. XX.—Kirkintilloch and Campsie.”, in Rambles round Glasgow, Descriptive, Historical, and Traditional, 2nd edition, Glasgow: Thomas Murray and Son, →OCLC, page 390:But hark! the robin takes up the strain. […] Thou art a type of the true poet, even of him who "crooneth to himsel" amid poverty, and want, and toil. Other birds require the sunshine and the flower to wake their musical utterances, but the drifting flake and the arrowy hail stay not thy song.
*** 2006, Bayo Ojikutu, Free Burning […], New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 306:"You, my sweet boy," she croons. "How much you still owe me?" […] "Be happy I ain't charging interest like how the man and all his bug-a-boos do," she croons on. "Just gimme a twenty. You got a dub or not?"
** (Northern England, Scotland) To lament, to moan.
** (Northern England, Scotland) To make a continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; to bellow, to low.
    Coordinate term: bawl
*** 1786, Robert Burns, “The Holy Fair”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 51:Novv Clinkumbell, vvi' rattlin tovv, / Begins to jovv an' croon; […]
*** 1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Second. Kilmeny. The Thirteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 192:Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed, / And murmured and looked with anxious pain / For something the mystery to explain.
*** 1838, Robert Southey, “Brough Bells”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published 1838, →OCLC, page 227:'Thou hear'st that lordly Bull of mine, / Neighbour,' quoth Brunskill then; / 'How loudly to the hills he crunes, / That crune to him again.[']
*** 1916, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “[Songs of the Hills and Woods.] A Winter Dawn.”, in The Watchman and Other Poems, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 85:Above the marge of night a star still shines, / And on the frosty hills the sombre pines / Harbor an eerie wind that crooneth low / Over the glimmering wastes of virgin snow.
** (Northern England, Scotland) Of a large bell: to make a low-pitched sound.

#### Conjugation

| infinitive | (to) croon | (to) croon |
| | present tense | past tense |
| 1st-person singular | croon | crooned |
| 2nd-person singular | croon, croonest$^†$ | crooned, croonedst$^†$ |
| 3rd-person singular | croons, crooneth$^†$ | crooned |
| plural | croon | crooned |
| subjunctive | croon | crooned |
| imperative | croon | — |
| participles | crooning | crooned |
$^†$Archaic or obsolete.

#### Derived terms

* crooner
* crooning (adjective, noun)
* crooningly

#### Translations
### Noun

croon (plural croons)
* A soft, low-pitched sound; specifically, a soft or sentimental hum, song, or tune.
** 1793, Robert Burns, “Poor Mailie’s Elegy”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 115:O, a’ ye Bards on bonie Doon! / An’ vvha on Ayr your chanters tune! / Come, join the melancholious croon / O’ Robin’s reed! / His heart vvill never get aboon! / His Mailie’s dead!
** 1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “How Hereward Turned Berserk”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 249:Bitterly she cried as she thought over the old hag's croon:— / "Quick joy, long pain, / You will take your gift again."
** 1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 72:From away out in the darkness came a haunting croon from the lubras and children.
** 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 6 August 2020:And really, Michael Jackson is a more fitting aspiration for the similarly sexless would-be-former teen heartthrob, who’s compared himself to the late King Of Pop (perhaps a bit prematurely) on several occasions and sings in a Jackson-like croon over a sample of “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” on Believe’s “Die In Your Arms.”
* (Northern England, Scotland) A continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; a bellow.
** 1785 (date written), Robert Burns, “Halloween”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 191:Amang the brachens, on the brae, / Betvveen her an' the moon, / The Deil, or elſe an outler Quey, / Gat up an' gae a croon: […]
** 1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Third. Mary Scott. The Fourteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 216:The bittern mounts the morning air; / And rings the sky with quavering croon; […]
* (Northern England, Scotland) The low-pitched sound of a large bell.

#### Derived terms

* croony

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “croon, v.$^2$”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
* ↑ “crọ̄nen, v.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Compare “croon, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “croon, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “croon, n.$^2$”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
* ↑ “croon, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “croon, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Anagrams

* Conor, Norco, corno, r'coon